With glorious speed, Skoll surged toward the confrontation ahead!
As if things were playing out in slow motion, Noah saw the eyes of THE Weavers land on him and his mount. Everything around them solidified and beca unfathomably heavy. The air itself compressed. Reality groaned beneath the attention of three Absolutes focusing their perception on a single point.
And an instant later, he appeared in front of Ul’moreth and Lumivara!
He gazed up toward THE Weavers gloriously, his expression imperious and utterly without fear.
"You have been looking for ?"
...!
HUUM!
His entrance was fast and unfathomably rapid!
It carried with it the glimr of power, of velocity that only an Absolute would have! The very fact that he had crossed such distance under their suppressive authority suggested capabilities that exceeded what his classification should allow.
Behind him, Ul’moreth and Lumivara were astonished.
But before they could even say anything or react, Noah sent them both a ntal ssage.
|Move quickly. No ti to explain. Send the mories of the entire path you have taken since THE Belly of Existence was torn open until you arrived here. Now.|
He did this for a critical reason.
If one of his two plans was forced to co to fruition, if he was forced to utilize THE Existential Paradox Loop and reverse ti to an Anchor Point, he could find Lumivara and Ul’moreth across the Wastes even before they ca across Gilgash and THE Weavers!
Prevention rather than rescue.
Both Lumivara and Ul’moreth did not delay.
Vast swathes of mories flooded into Noah’s perception. The Wastes they had crossed. The landmarks they had passed. The route they had taken through corrupted reality after THE Belly of Existence was torn open.
Everything.
While they did this, Noah also gave the command to Skoll.
|Speed Transfer to Ul’moreth and Lumivara. Now.|
The transford Duke’s capabilities flowed outward, granting his impossible velocity to the two beings Noah had co to rescue.
He did all of this in the span of an instant.
And then he gazed up at THE Weavers.
Oh!
They were a horrid wonder to observe!
Three figures floated above everything, their robes and hoods finally parting enough for their faces to beco visible beneath the shadowed fabric.
Ancient.
Decrepit.
Withered beyond what any mortal existence should endure and still function.
Their skin was papyrus-thin and gray, stretched over bones that seed too prominent, too sharp, too angular to belong to anything that had ever been young. Deep wrinkles carved canyons across their features, each line representing eons of existence that had worn away everything soft and left only hardened purpose behind.
Their mouths were thin slashes that curved into expressions that might have been smiles or might have been the natural configuration of lips that had forgotten how to do anything else.
And their eyes!
Shockingly, those ancient orbs swirled with golden light!
Not the warm gold of dawn or the rich gold of treasure. This was the cold, calculating gold of fate itself, of threads being asured and cut, of destinies being woven and unraveled according to designs that predated the beings whose lives they manipulated.
THE Weavers!
Entities who had existed since before who kne when, who had woven the very fabric of THE Loom, who now served THE Living Paradox with the patient certainty of entities who believed they already knew how every story ended.
The more Noah locked his gaze with them, the more he felt their attention pressing against his existence like blades seeking weak points.
So he spoke.
Grandly.
Tyrannically.
"You were looking for , but you had not expected to reach Absolute so quickly?"
His voice carried weight that made the surrounding reality compress further.
"How does it feel that my re presence here is already locking away access to The First Tongue for all of you?"
...!
He spoke such words grandly!
The Thesis he had utilized against THE Living Spirit and his forces was not contested in Muspelheim. He could apply it anywhere! So he began applying it freely and grandly, his authority as The One Who Laid The Claim extending outward to restrict access to The First Tongue for all who opposed him.
Around him, he began to move on to his next phase of planning.
After claiming to be an Absolute, he would bluff as if a terrifying showdown was about to unfold.
And then...he would run with Ul’moreth and Lumivara!
A mont of surprise that would decide everything!
They would run with the speed of an Absolute, and a chase would ensue. But even then, he had a plan for this. Reversing ti was currently the last resort as it affected too many things.
But just as he was about to continue...
BZZT!
The imrsive simulation flickered!
Not gently. Not gradually. The entire constructed reality around him shuddered with instability that spoke of imminent collapse.
|CRITICAL WARNING|
|A horrid discovery has been made.|
|Additional designations of THE Weavers identified:|
|THE Moirai.|
|THE Daughters of THE Night.|
|THE Spinners of Fate.|
|Core Capability:|
|They hold unfathomable control over fates and potentialities.|
|They perceive the threads of possibility that connect so futures to so pasts.|
|They sense when those threads are being manipulated by outside forces.|
|Current Status:|
|They are about to discover that this is a simulation.|
|They are about to perceive that another entity is encroaching upon their Absolute domain of fate and potential futures.|
|If this discovery is completed, your identity and location will be exposed to genuine Absolutes.|
|Ergency Protocol Initiated:|
|To prevent discovery...|
|To protect your anonymity...|
|To preserve the elent of surprise that represents your only advantage...|
|THE Moirai Thread you utilized has snapped itself prematurely.|
|Simulation terminated.|
|All gathered information has been preserved.|
|Your existence remains hidden from THE Weavers’ perception.|
|For now.|
HUUM!
Golden brilliance erupted all around!
The imrsive illusion shattered like glass being struck by a hamr, fragnts of simulated reality dissolving into streams of golden light that flowed back into Noah’s existence.
He found himself fully back in Muspelheim.
THE Infiniverse floated nearby, its blue-gold radiance pulsing with patient attention.
Galileo watched with ears fully erect, his fluffy form practically vibrating with questions he knew better than to ask at this mont.
Duke sat with his tongue out, looking toward Noah with innocent eyes that had no idea what potential slept within his fluffy form.
Surtra and the other Muspeli Lifeforms gazed at him with expressions ranging from awe to concern.
And in the distance, he could sense Sigrid, Ra’Zan, Riya, The First Farr, Titano, Protos, and multiple others who had witnessed his motionless form surrounded by golden light for however long the simulation had lasted.
Noah’s expression beca heavier.
His eyes flickered brilliantly as he processed everything he had learned!
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